Showers can be found in houses, hotels, hostels and lodges all around the world. Showers consume huge quantity of water.
Portable or hand-held or mini showers provide shower on-the-go for travellers and campers. Such showers are generally used for quickly washing a part of the body such as the hands, face or legs. A typical portable or mini-shower includes a container for holding water, a pipe or a conduit for flow of water, a pressuring means such as a foot-pedal and a shower head.
A full-body shower consumes upwards of fifty liters of water. Known mini showers also need around three to five liters of water for one-time use and usually a device, once pressurised, provides a spray of water for very short duration. Therefore people tend to pressurise the container again so that they can have repeat shower. People using portable or mini showers often desire a longer-lasting shower in a single use, but with the disclosed drawbacks and limitations of conventional mini showers, this inherently implies the use of more water.
The concept of sustainable use of natural resources is fast gaining widespread momentum. This can be seen from the fact that some companies have started including elements of sustainability in their corporate agenda and vision. Some companies have also started publishing sustainability reports.
Water is undoubtedly one of the most important natural resources. However, published reports indicate that the daily global consumption of water crosses several hundred thousand liters for showers alone.
Therefore, it is a technical problem to design a mini shower which can meet some opposing demands at the same time. The first demand is to be sustainable. This implies the use of significantly lesser water. The second requirement is to provide a longer-lasting shower after the container of water is adequately pressurised for use.
US patent publications U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,431 B1 (Barry Schwibner, 1973), U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,266 B1 (Hildebrand, 1992) and US2005086738 A1 (Gragtmans Ian) disclose conventional portable showers having a conduit, a conventional shower head, a container and a deformable foot pump for pressurising the container. The mini shower apparatus is designed for washing the hands, the feet or the face.
The limitations of such conventional portable or mini showers have already been described. The typical duration of shower for a one-time use is about 10 seconds to 15 seconds, whereas users desire longer lasting showers once the container is adequately pressurised.
We have now determined that the aforesaid technical problems can be solved by making use of gas to adequately pressurise the water which is then co-dispensed along with water in the form of a mist or spray through a shower head having unique configuration of nozzles.